Traditionally, in a retail environment, retailers and manufacturers build customer loyalty to goods and services offered for sale through advertising and coupons. Many manufacturers distribute coupons for their products, either through the mail, by printing them in newspapers or magazines, or enclosing them in similar or related product packages. Presently, there are point-of-sale systems which assist manufacturers with coupon distribution by printing redeemable coupons at the point-of-sale terminal for immediate delivery to the customer. These systems are designed specifically for putting discount coupons for selected products in the hands of a customer who uses some other competing product. One problem with such a system is that it does not eliminate the problem that an individual must have coupons on their person when visiting a retail outlet in order to receive the benefit intended. For this reason, individuals who are not avid coupon collectors will not see value in such a system because such a system still requires the individual to consciously shop with coupons in mind in order to receive a benefit. It will not make a difference to an average customer who does not normally use coupons whether coupons are obtained at the point-of-sale device after a transaction or are collected from mass mailings or the newspaper.
Generally, coupons encourage purchase of a product and may build loyalty to manufacturers. However, no loyalty is built to retailers through the use of coupons. There is a need for a system that can also build customer loyalty for retailers. There is also a need for a system that can build customer loyalty of the average customer who is not an avid coupon collector or does not have coupons on their person at the time of making purchases. Such a system would need to provide other incentives in association with items being purchased as well as other types of products and services.
Although there are also existing point-of-sale systems which assist retailers with customer loyalty in a non-coupon environment, problems exist with such systems. One such system implements a magnetic card and card reader into the point-of-sale system. In this system retailers provide their customer's with magnetic stripe account cards that are to be presented at the point-of-sale for receiving a retailer-determined discount on goods and services the retailer sells. In this system, upon making a purchase, customers will obtain a discount by receiving a cash value equal to a portion of the amount of the purchase. The cash value is not given directly to the customer but is added to an existing cash value stored in the customer's account which can only be accessed at established intervals. The problem with such a system is that it is very restrictive in that it does not allow the customer to have immediate access to the discount. Moreover, a customer may not know his/her cash value account balance after several purchases have been made at different participating retailers (e.g., because the system does not provide immediate updates of the customer's account value at the point of sale). Accordingly, there is a need for a system which allows a customer to obtain incentives and be informed of and immediately use these incentives during the same transaction in which they are earned. The system must allow a customer to be informed at the point-of-sale device immediately following each transaction of his or her incentives earned and used in that transaction. The system must also then inform the customer of his or her new unused incentives accumulated, even if there are multiple transactions at multiple retailer outlets in the same day.